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Saturday, May 27, 2017

Review of FROZEN ASSETS by Quentin Bates

3.5 Stars

I recently
read Snowblind by the Icelandic
author Ragnar Jónasson and discovered the translator
was Quentin Bates who has also written a series of Icelandic mysteries.So I thought I’d give Bates’ book a try.

Frozen Assets is the first in the series introducing Sgt.
Gunnhildur Gísladóttir, known by everybody
as Gunna the Cop.A body is found in the
water near Hvalvík where Gunna is the police officer
in charge.It might seem like an
accidental drowning but then Gunna discovers that the victim had been seen in
Reykjavik severely inebriated so the big question is how he got 100 kms away
from the city.Gunna’s investigations uncover
corruption involving the victim’s boss, Signurjóna Huldudóttir, who is married to the country’s Environment Minister.

It is Gunna
the Cop that interests me enough to get me to read more of the books in the
series.She is described as “a big fat
lass with a face that frightens the horses” though that is an obvious
exaggeration.She is astute and
intelligent and straightforward.She
doesn’t suffer fools easily.Colleagues
respect her.For me, she is just a
character I could not help but like.

Minor
characters, unfortunately, tend to be a blur.I had difficulty differentiating the other police officers.Only the journalist shadowing Gunna and the
villain emerge as fully developed characters.

I enjoyed
learning more about the political and economic turmoil that Iceland experienced
in 2008.I had never clearly understood
what had happened, but Bates manages to explain in a way that makes sense.

The story
is told from multiple perspectives; being given the viewpoint of the villain
certainly increases suspense as a cat-and-mouse game develops.

I also
appreciated the touches of humour.Throughout the book, blog entries by an anonymous blogger are
inserted.This blogger provides “completely
reliable, totally unsubstantiated and extremely libellous gossip about the
great and the good of Icelandic entertainment, business and politics.”Some of his comments are hilarious, though of
course his victims are less than pleased.

I will
definitely return to this series because of the protagonist who is anything but
a stereotypical police detective.

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About Me

I'm a retired English teacher/teacher-librarian who, after 30 years, left the classroom and became a copyeditor and book reviewer. Reading has always been my passion and now, in our new home, I have, thanks to my husband, the library of my dreams. For many years, before I retired and moved, I belonged to THE Timmins Book Club which is one of the oldest in North America, with minutes dating back to 1938; I submitted an article about us and it was featured on the LitLovers.com website: http://www.litlovers.com/featured-clubs/timmins-book-club. Now I'm trying to start a global book club of sorts with my blog: http://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/.